Samsung sings a different tune

South Korean electronics giant Samsung is launching its first flat screen TV across Europe at the end of this month, designed by London product design consultancy Native. The move is a response to the growth in home theatre and the trend for large, flatscreen TVs.

Under the leadership of Morten Warren, who founded Native in 1996, the award-winning consultancy has created the Plano Super Flat. The most striking feature – the absence of both visual mass at the back of the product and overblown in-built loudspeakers – is in response to consumer feedback, which found that people who wanted earth-shattering sound preferred to link their TV up to their hi-fi, rather than rely on in-built TV sound.

Native has designed the Plano so it can be tailored to fit in with different interior plans. The TV is equipped with a stable, strong purpose-built stand so the TV can be a free-standing unit in an open-plan space or alternatively placed in a corner. The other feature is a detachable colour anodised aluminium facia, laminated to a green glass acrylic screen. This can be altered according to the individual furnishings, through subtly hidden controls within a lip of the front body.

Warren says: ‘We recognised the need to design a TV for Samsung to go against the current trends of flat, one-dimensional design cabinets. By promoting sweeping lines and arcs we re-emphasised form and elegance, both of which are missing in many of today’s video and audio products.’

Client: Samsung

Design: Native – Morten Warren, Michael Myer, Scott Chapps, Clive Goodwin (now at Samsung), Raun Forsyth.